Shaking a leg with the stars

Top-of-the-crop Bollywood actors banished the Monday blues for 10 lucky HT City readers when they danced with them, chatted up like old friends and even went down on a knee to propose a lucky young lady! The cast of the movie, Satyagraha, including actors Ajay Devgn, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Amrita Rao, along with director Prakash Jha, came to HT House earlier this week for our Stars in the City series, where you get to meet the biggest actors while they’re in Delhi.

While Arjun Rampal’s fun proposal to a young fan on request and Amrita Rao’s little jig with another left the packed hall asking for more, serious matters ruled the rest of the session. Asked if she would like to hold a satyagraha against the lack of women’s safety, Kareena said, “I think this needs much more than a satyagraha to be fixed. The laws need to be assessed and strengthened in our country. Fear needs to be instilled in criminal minds.”

Monday afternoon was witness to the third leg of HT Stars in the City contest, as the cast of the upcoming film Satyagraha — actors Ajay Devgn, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpai, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Amrita Rao, along with the film’s director Prakash Jha, visited the Hindustan Times House to meet their fans. While one of the fans, Sakshi, asked Arjun to propose to her, another young fan, asked Amrita to shake a leg with him on the song Gori Gori from the film Main Hoon Na (2004). Both the actors were kind enough to comply.

The session, conducted by HT City editor Sonal Kalra, saw Kareena and Ajay being requested to say a few lines from the film, to which Ajay said, “Ab sirf ek hi action hoga, public ka direct action” from the film, while Kareena said, “Bheed ke vote se loktantra nahin banta”, a line her character uses.

The cast also delved into the details of the film, saying that it talks about the Indian society. When asked about the impact of his films on politicians, director Prakash Jha said, “Itni aasani se jaagne wale jantu nahin hai, dheet log hai. Ghis ghis ke hatana padega (They will not wake up this easily. We will have to rub it against these stubborn people)”. The 61-year-old also clarified why his films are based on political themes. “What interests me the most is the changes that a society goes through because of certain factors. I am very interested in studying these changes. Even in political subjects, stories need to be interesting enough to engage the audience”, he said.

One of the fans asked Manoj that other than hard work, what is important to be successful in life, to which he replied, “There are no alternatives for hard work. One shouldn’t look at the goal, but should enjoy the process. Other than hard work, you need a lot of patience.”

Ajay, when asked about the concept of box office collections going beyond 100 crores, said, “More theatres mean more people watching. It’s directly proportional to the amount you make. The collection will keep on increasing.”